Overwatch Lucio Speed Buff Guide By: ProfessorGanymede

Class is in session. This is Professor Ganymede. In this video (Or written transcript if you are reading this) I’m going to attempt to make the most in-depth guide on when to switch off of Lucio’s heal aura, to instead use his speed passive and amp. This will be a long video and because of the in-depth nature of this guide this video will be scripted. For those that don’t have the time to watch the entire thing, I have made a transcript of the guide which I will link below in the description. So let’s get started.

I have put together a list of 8 reasons to use Lucio’s speed passive and amp.These methods are in no particular order, and may be updated at a later date. So if I forgot something, please let me know in the comments below.

Number 1: To chase down opponents.

This includes low health opponents who you yourself want to try to finish off, or opponents you want to help your team finish off. Proper use of Lucio’s speed buff makes it extremely hard for Lucio’s enemies to retreat, allowing for easy kills when Lucio’s team is at an advantage. I also use speed passive and amp when our team has other noticeable advantages over the enemy besides low health or numbers advantage.

For example, I notice that a member of the enemy team has wasted or used an important ultimate or cd that would give my team a high chance of winning a skirmish. In these cases I may announce the opportunity, push my team to fight, and switch to speed passive, and potentially amp speed as well in order to start the engagement. An example of a great moment is when the enemy reinhardt wastes his ult by ulting your ally Reinhardt’s shield. In that moment I would switch to speed and try to get my team to move in off of that advantage.

Number 2: At the beginning of a match when leaving spawn.

In pretty much every game, once the gates open I will either start out with speed passive or use speed amp, depending on the situations. If my team is under heavy fire immediately like on Watchpoint: Gibraltar, I may save my amp for healing. In those cases I wil simply start out in my speed passive and amp as necessary. If my team takes damage when they exit the gate I may amp healing, or amp speed to allow them to get to their ideal position in a very quick amount of time. Like rushing behind the payload of Route 66 and Watchpoint: Gibraltar.

Number 3: When Taxying my team back to combat.

If a good amount of my teammates die I may retreat from the fight in order to speed my team back to combat as they re-spawn. This is effective for multiple reasons. Firstly, I prevent myself from dying, staggering our teams deaths and feeding the enemy ultimate charge. And I’m able to push my team to regroup and return to combat. I mented staggering deaths. What I mean by this is, for example, if 1 member of my team dies alone, then 5 seconds later another member of my team dies, then our team as a whole will have to wait that much longer for our team to be all alive and all together, since we have to wait for the person who died second to respawn.

Now when I taxi my team back to combat I often have to choose whether or not I want to use speed amp during this time. This decision takes into consideration a number of factors. Like, how long will it take for my team to get back to combat? Is my entire team grouping together or are some members of my team still off on their own, risking death? On uncoordinated teams, like when I solo q or I am playing with a generally uncoordinated group, I like to speed amp in every situation because I want my team to be together as soon as possible.

This of course means that potentially, when the members of my team who respawned do get back into combat, I may not have my amp available during the returning fight. I find that amping speed as my team respawns outweigh the negative of POTENTIALLY not having my speed buff during the first fight because, 1. My speed buff will usually be about 5 seconds from coming off of cooldown anyway, and 2, I need my team together as much as possible to avoid deaths being staggered further. In a coordinated game however I would most likely save my amp for the first fight and just use my speed passive to taxi my team back to combat together.

Number 4: To allow my allies to retreat.

Lucio’s speed buff can also get people out of sticky situations where the heal buff would not be as effective. For example, most enemy ultimates can be avoided by allowing your team to move faster. Amping or using speed passive during Mei’s ultimate will often save more lives than attempting to heal your team during the crowd control. Another example is during Mcree’s ult where healing is not effective at all and using speed would allow your team to escape out of line of sight. Dva’s ult is also worth noting as well. But again, Speed is effective against most ultimates.

I’d even use speed to have my team retreat back after hearing the enemy Lucio use his ult, because then we can wait out it’s duration. Also with speed buff your team can escape other less game changing situations. Allowing your mercy, for example, to escape that reaper who is chasing her can be the difference between you winning or losing a game. Healing in that situation wouldn’t be very helpful because of the incredible amount of damage that reaper does. Speeding Mercy out of his range could be what would actually save her life.

Another example would be to allow a Reinhardt to regroup with the team after he has charged deep into enemy lines. Having the ability to speed your teammates out of dangerous situations, whether it be because they overcommitted or just want HAM, is invaluable.

Number 5: To save yourself.

I can’t count how many times using speed buff in certain situations has allowed me to live in a situation where Heal buff wouldn’t have been very effective. I use speed passive or amp to escape A winston jumping on me, a reaper who has gotten too close, countless ultimates, and other deadly situations, Now ideally you’d want to be in a position to survive without needing to use your cooldowns on yourself, because then that allows you to save your abilities for your team. But the ideal situation is rare so in those desperate scenarios, the speed passive and amp is very good at keeping you alive.

Number 6: When your team is at full health or when your team has a second healer. (Often times both of these factors are at play simultaneously)

So an argument I hear often is that Lucio should be using his speed passive when ever his team is at full health. The benefit of this is that your team can dodge damage easier and your team can corner peak more effectively. While this can be true, especially the more coordinated your team is, I find that for most players and teams, this is not actually as helpful as it sounds. The fact is that on an uncoordinated team, Lucio’s speed aura is very difficult to predict. Because without coordination, you cannot reliably know when he will stop speeding, start healing, or start speeding again. Or drop out of line of sight which will also make his speed aura not effect his allies.

So while it is good in theory, and especially effective at higher levels of play, which is why you see it in tournaments so often, for most players, statistically, they and their team will not have the coordination to use Lucio’s speed buff as a tool to dodge bullets or corner peek more effectively. So I actually don’t use it for that purpose because I mainly solo q or play with uncoordinated teams. I hit rank 65 with just Lucio solo q, which is the top 2% of players. And even at these levels, grouping with random pubs, teams still had no where near the level of communication required to make speeding for the purpose of dodging bullets and corner peaking, an effective strategy.

Often times I will end up throwing off my allies aim or speeding them into a situation they weren’t prepared for. For these reason I’ll say that if you aren’t in a coordinated team, just heal until a different opportunity for speeding presents itself. For those at the higher levels of play, Lucio can and should be used in this manner. And the presence of a second healer simply makes this tactic more effective because then Lucio has to spend less time switching to healing, which allows him more time to be in speed aura. Which, in-turn, makes his speed buff more reliable.

Number 7: Generally positioning yourself and your teammates.

Repositioning during the game is often times a vital tool in maintaining locational superiority over your enemy. Whether this means allowing your team to take the higher ground quickly, or speeding your flankers into a good flanking position, or allowing yourself to take a move advantage position, the phrase “location location location” is very relevant to overwatch. Ensuring that your team takes a location and is properly positioned as fast as possible allows for many advantages to be taken in your team’s favor and many enemy weaknesses to be exploited.

For example, if the enemy team takes the first point on Hollywood a common strategy is for the defending team to take the ramp upwards and hold the high ground on top of the roofs. Using Lucio’s speed amp and passive to retreat and get to that high ground as soon as possible could be the difference between a impenetrable hold or a failed defense because your team couldn’t take the advantaged position fast enough.

Edit: This would also include the ability for Lucio’s speed amp and passive to help his team bypass difficult chokepoints. For example, on the front gate to Temple of Anubis, attacking teams often use Lucio’s speed passive/amp to rush to the left side room or rush to the right room. Typically under cover of Reinhardt’s shield. Reducing time spent in a choke point reduces the disadvantage being forced to fight in a choke point would give to your team. If you’ve ever seen the movie “300,” you should have an idea of just how effective choke points are and why you’d want to spend as little time as possible being trapped in one.

Number 8: Another topic that needs to be covered is when to just use the speed passive and when to use the speed amp.

Ideally, you’d want to NEED the speed amp as little as possible. As in, you wouldn’t want to use it to save yourself or save allies, because then that valuable cooldown is unavailable to make certain game changing plays. Like amping your team forward to take advantage of an opportunity. But again, the ideal situation rarely exists and you WILL need that speed amp. A general rule is to use the speed amp when the movement from the speed passive isn’t fast enough for what you want to accomplish. This may seem obvious but it is still worth saying.

For example, Lucio can’t outrun Genji’s ult with just his passive, but he can with his amp. Also, your team may not be fast enough to dodge Dva’s ult with just the speed passive, so you may want to give them that extra speed from the amp to ensure their survival.

A more offensive use of this is when you want to capitalize on an opportunity as fast as possible, like taking advantage of the fact that both of Zarya’s shield cooldowns are unavailable. So you may want to rush your team in as soon as possible to end the fight before those cooldowns of Zarya’s become available again.

Number 9: Using Speed Buff after ulting

This tip was improvised during the recording of the video. But to summarize, I describe how, in most cases, I will use speed buff directly after ulting since my team now has a large 500 health shield that gives them a large advantage during the coming engagement. However I will sometimes stay in my heal buff if someone is low health when my ultimate hits them.

Because if they are low health after my ult is on them, if they don’t get healed from another source, they will be low health after Lucio’s 500 health shield wears off. So for example, if a Roadhog only has 300 health when Lucio’s ults, unless Roadhog is healed from another source, he will still only have 300 health when the Lucio shield wears off.

Conclusion

So hopefully this guide will help you determine when and when not to use Lucio speed passive and amp. This has been Professor Ganymede, thanks for watching, Class dismissed.